Sylvester Brown has once again taken up the subject of Juan Williams and his book. Sylvester has decided to by and large replow old ground, although at least this time he doesn’t try to equate Juan’s message to “that the black man is inherently flawed, violent and savage”, but hammers the idea that white people have problems too pretty hard:
The breakdown of the black family is evident when 70 percent of black children are born to single mothers, Williams asserts. If this is the case, then America, not just black America, is in a heap of trouble. The U.S. Census Bureau just announced that 50.2 percent of American families are headed by single women. And, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, the number of births to single white women has reached all-time highs, while the birth rate for black teens has dropped to “historic lows.”That sort of positive news doesn’t play well in “blame-black” circles. In a society that’s grown weary of in-depth social analysis, it’s just easier to wrap issues like poverty, crime and single-parent households in a stereotype.
While I don’t disagree with Sylvester, it does raise the question in my mind, if poor blacks can blame racism, descrimination, and the legacy of slavery for there poverty and poor choices, what do poor whites get to blame? Yes, a white person can fall victim to all the social pathologies a black person can, but can’t say there is nothing they can do about it because their skin color dooms them in American society. Or is there something different between white poverty than black poverty, something different between poor white choices than poor black choices, something different between white criminals and black criminals? If white skin privilege exists, the greater part of it has to be that there are fewer excuses.
And isn’t that really the point Juan Williams is trying to make – for people to get over the blame game, take control of their lives, and do something about their situation? Did Juan ask black people to stop being black, or did he ask them to simply adopt American middle class behavior: get a high school education, don’t have children until one is twenty-one and married, work hard at any job, and be good parents? Is there something wrong with that advice? Can only white people follow that advice?
What’s Sylvester’s argument – don’t tell poor black people to clean up their act as long as their are poor white people who aren’t cleaning up their act?
